Research report finds e-mail archiving and compliance a major new priority for records managers and IT staff

Toronto - December 6, 2004 - Hummingbird Ltd. (NASDAQ: HUMC, TSX: HUM), a leading global provider of integrated enterprise content management (ECM) solutions, today announced that Hummingbird Enterprise™ document management and e-mail archiving solutions are a leading choice of records managers, according to a new survey conducted by Ferris Research entitled, "Email Records Management Survey: Guidelines, Technologies, and Trends"1.

The Ferris Research report is based on a survey of more than 400 records managers from a variety of industry sectors including government organizations, financial services, health care, education and legal services.

According to Ferris Research, e-mail archiving and regulatory compliance is a major priority for records managers and the driving force behind the increased interest in managing e-mail messages as business records. This response is consistent with results from an informal poll on Hummingbird.com where the highest percentage of respondents indicated that they have dedicated budgets for e-mail management initiatives.

The Ferris Research survey focused on e-mail management policies and practices currently in place at the organizations. Among the findings in the report:
Most organizations have made e-mail archiving a priority within IT, with 36 percent reporting it as a major priority. According to the report, "as recently as two years ago, archiving of e-mail would have been a non-issue in most organizations."
Organizations that are required to treat the different types of data as records are integrating e-mail records management with document management systems. Hummingbird is named as one of the most commonly used document management systems that organizations use for managing, archiving or disposing of e-mail records.
Hummingbird Enterprise E-mail Management leverages core Hummingbird Enterprise content management suite modules to provide organizations with the ability to easily track, classify, store, and manage messages on an enterprise-wide basis. Managing e-mail as an integral component of an enterprise content repository means that records administrators can more easily and effectively implement retention and disposition rules associated with e-mail messages and attachments. Rules are automatically archived to ensure that they are traceable and auditable, thereby helping organizations ensure a strong position with respect to regulatory compliance measures.

Hummingbird Enterprise provides comprehensive end-to-end content lifecycle management integration with all major e-mail systems such as Microsoft Outlook, Novell GroupWise and Lotus Notes.

"Hummingbird understands that e-mail is the most critical communication channel for most organizations and government agencies. As e-mail communications continue to proliferate, the inbox has become an integral part of the document management system for most organizations today," said Andrew Pery, chief marketing officer and senior vice president, Hummingbird Ltd. "Hummingbird Enterprise offers fully integrated and comprehensive records management capabilities for managing the complete lifecycle of all physical and electronic corporate knowledge assets, including e-mail. Managing the e-mail lifecycle along side enterprise content and records reduces exposure to regulatory scrutiny and civil and criminal penalties."